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To the editor: I watched hours of impeachment hearings and found Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee were focused on eliciting kernels that can be popped into slogans like, Trump gave them Javelins, Obama gave them blankets.

The Trump administration providing Ukraine with anti-tank missiles has been universally praised by witnesses. In her testimony Thursday, however, former White House Russia advisor Fiona Hill qualified her support. Hill noted that during the Obama presidency, she had coauthored an op-ed article opposing the release of the Javelins, because she felt the Ukrainian military was not in a fit state to really take on board sophisticated weapons.

Hills counsel of restraint certainly resonated. At the time, Russian President Vladimir Putin imprudently bestowed surface-to-air missiles to his untrained proxies in eastern Ukraine. The result was the downing of a commercial airliner.

Two years later, Hill came to support the release of Javelins to Ukraine. The change came after she joined the National Security Council and learned from partners at the Pentagon that the Ukrainian military was now a competent, sustainable force.

Perhaps the more accurate slogan would read, Obama laid the foundation, Trump took the credit.

Michael Hawkins, Newbury Park

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To the editor: Heres a reply to the article that said U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland saved himself, not Trump: The president doesnt need saving.

The result of House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiffs circus is preordained. The House of Representatives will impeach Trump regardless of testimony for or against the president.

Then the Senate will acquit. Any questions?

Michael Sanchez, West Hollywood

See original here:
Did Obama really send just blankets to the Ukrainians? - Los Angeles Times

Former President Barack Obama told Democrats at a California fundraiser on Thursday evening that he was open to higher taxes on rich people, including himself, according to a report in The New York Times.

"I've got a lot of room to pay more taxes and I already pay really high taxes," he said. "That's one area where, I guarantee you, where you will get Joe six-pack and the single inner-city mom agreeing. They would like to see a little bigger share of the pie and you know, the rent is too damn high."

He noted that the debate around taxes had changed significantly since the time he ran for president, The Times reported.

Obama's remarks come as the current slate of Democratic candidates propose a variety of higher taxes on the rich, including imposing new ones on capital gains and other Wall Street transactions.

And Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have laid out plans to implement a wealth tax in the United States that would hit the accumulated fortunes of the richest US taxpayers.

Business Insider previously reported that Barack Obama's current net worth is $40 million. Since leaving the White House, the Obama family have enjoyed a lucrative life with book deals worth at least $60 million, one of which produced a bestselling memoir from former First Lady Michelle Obama.

They also signed a Netflix production deal last year estimated to be $50 million, according to the New York Post.

As a former president, Obama earns an annual pension of around $200,000, and he's made hundreds of thousands more from speaking engagements around the world.

Assuming the $40 million net worth, Obama would be exempted from the Warren wealth tax plan, which starts with a 2% levy on net worths above $50 million. But he wouldn't be spared from the Sanders tax, which begins at fortunes above $32 million at a 1% margin.

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Obama says he's open to higher taxes on the wealthy, saying 'I've got a lot of room to pay more taxes' - INSIDER

Last month, the nonpartisan Department of Justice inspector general released the findings of his investigation into the Drug Enforcement Administrations regulation of the ever-growing opioid crisis from 2010 to 2017.

The inspector general reported that the DEAs Office of Diversion Control exacerbated the opioid crisis by failing many of its most basic functions to create and enforce regulations to protect the public interest against the diversion and misuse of prescription opioid pain killers.

The Controlled Substances Act vests nearly all federal power to regulate opioids in the U.S. Department of Justice, under which the Office of Diversion Control is responsible for setting annual production and manufacturing quotas. It issues licenses (called registrations) for manufacturers, distributors, prescribers, and pharmacists, and it has the power and responsibility to deny applications or revoke registrations that are not in the public interest."

During the 2018 election cycle, Democrats railed against everyone in the supply chain, except the people vested with national authority to make the changes needed. And since the release of the inspector generals report, their silence is deafening. The regulation of prescription opioids during the eight years under President Obama is the elephant in the room that the mainstream media and lawmakers are talking over, under, and around. But the inspector general has laid it all out for us to see and use as a roadmap back to safe and sane regulation of much-needed pain-relief medicine and a reduction in overdose deaths and addiction.

The inspector general revealed that from 2003 through 2013, the DEAs Office of Diversion Control approved increasing the aggregate production quota for opioids by more than 400%. The Office of Diversion Control also increased active registrants to 1.6 million from 2005 to 2015, an increase of 45%. Meanwhile, from 2013 to 2017, opioid deaths rose by 71% all while the DEA kept increasing the allowable flow of the drug in the marketplace.

The inspector general reported that the Office of Diversion Control did not conduct background checks or otherwise check-out applicants properly. In essence, the Office of Diversion Control was rubber-stamping registrations to produce, deliver, prescribe, and sell opioids without performing even simple background checks or going beyond applicants' affirmations, via checkbox, that they lacked criminal records.

Registrants are required to submit suspicious orders to the Office of Diversion Control; the purpose of those reports is to identify rogue doctors and pharmacies that may be overprescribing opioids. The reports are supposed to be housed in the Suspicious Order Reporting System, which was not even created until 2008. Unfortunately, that system was unable to properly detect drug diversion because most of the reports were sent to DEA field offices and never uploaded to the database. This is how, of the 1,400 manufacturers and distributors required to submit suspicious order reports, the DEA database only included reports from the eight manufacturers and distributors that had agreements to send the reports to DEA headquarters. Amazingly, when the inspector general asked for the reports that had not been uploaded, the field offices were unable to locate them.

So although several drug distributors ended up footing a $260 million bill for the economic burden that two Ohio counties suffered from the opioid crisis, the actions and inactions of the last administration are what really put the opioid crisis into overdrive.

The real power of a congressional investigation and hearings is to make real policy changes that can make life better for everyday Americans. This is one such opportunity. Congress owes it to its constituents to immediately begin an investigation into how the previous administrations Department of Justice and Drug Enforcement Administration utterly failed to take even the most basic steps to stop the opioid crisis in its tracks.

Ian Prior iis former principal deputy director of public affairs at the Department of Justice.

See original here:
The Obama administration's overlooked failure on opioids - Washington Examiner

Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., ripped Rep. Tulsi Gabbard during the Democratic debate in Atlanta, tearing into the Hawaii congresswoman for her comments on Democratsand accusing her of bashing President Barack Obama on Fox News.

The attack came after Gabbard said the Democratic Party "is not the party that is of, by and for the people." In response, Harris accused Gabbard of being harsh toward Democrats while cozying up to President Donald Trump and his former chief strategist Steve Bannon.

"I think that its unfortunate that we have someone on this stage who is attempting to be the Democratic nominee for president of the United States who during the Obama administration spent four years, full time, on Fox News criticizing President Obama," Harris said.

We decided to dig into the archives and examine Gabbards record as a guest on Fox News, a network considered friendly to Trump and his Republican allies.

Saying Gabbard was on Fox "full time" seems like an exaggeration, but Gabbard did make frequent appearances on the network during Obamas second term. And she often bashed the former presidents foreign policy in the process.

As for Harris, she appeared just once on "Hannity" in 2009 to talk about health care while she was San Franciscos district attorney, we found.

A frequent Fox News guest

Gabbards arrival in Congress overlapped with the start of Obamas second term. From 2013 to 2017, she became a regular guest on Fox News. Its important to note that Gabbard was appearing as a sitting member of Congress, not as a pundit

Searching the Nexis database, we counted more than 20 appearances Gabbard made on Fox News while Obama was in office. That does not include times when she was mentioned on Fox News or featured in video clips the networks hosts played on air.

She was interviewed by a number of current and former Fox News hosts, from anchor Greta Van Susteren to talk show host Tucker Carlson.

Gabbard criticized Obamas foreign policy

Gabbards anti-war foreign policy views have long put her at odds with members of both parties who believe the United States should have an active hand in resolving international issues.

As she campaigns for the White House, Gabbard has promised to fight for peace and stay out of what she calls "regime-change wars" overseas.

RELATED STORY: Why Tulsi Gabbard calls the war in Syria a regime change war

Not surprisingly, her early appearances on Fox News were often critical of the Obama administrations actions to combat terrorism and manage other issues in the Middle East.

In a September 2013 interview with Van Susteren, Gabbard said she was against military strikes as Obama was weighing whether to authorize them against the Syrian government.

In June 2014 and August 2014 interviews on the same show, she shared concerns about Obamas decisions to send military advisers to Iraq and target the Islamic State with airstrikes.

Gabbard ramped up her appearances in 2015, going on Fox News several times to blast Obama over his refusal to refer to the Islamic States beliefs and terrorism as "Islamic extremism" or "radical Islam."

"Unless you clearly identify your enemy, then you cannot come up with a very effective strategy to defeat that enemy," she told host Neil Cavuto on Jan. 21, 2015.

"This is not just about words. It's not about semantics," she told Van Susteren days later. "It's really about having a real, true understanding of who our enemy is and how important that is."

She later criticized the administrations strategy to defeat ISIS, telling Van Susteren that "the White House needs to change its policy" and give more support to U.S. allies in the Middle East.

And she repeatedly appeared on Fox News to argue that the United States should not work to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, at one point warning that removing Assad would leave Syria as a repeat of "the failed Libyan state" she said Obamas foreign policy helped produce.

Gabbard touched on other topics in foreign policy, as well. She weighed in on Israel and the then-ongoing negotiations with Iran over the countrys efforts to build nuclear weapons, which she said should result in a deal that allowed Iranian sites to be inspected without warning.

She also stepped outside of the foreign policy arena, at one point condemning the Democratic National Committee for allegedly disinviting her from a primary debate in October 2015, while she was the committees vice chair, andoffering the then-candidates debate advice.

But even then, her advice to candidates sounded like a swipe against Obama when she said they should answer questions on Syria by speaking out against Turkeys "targeting" of the United States Kurdish allies in the region.

"The fact that the administration has stood silently by and allowed this to happen, including NATO, I think it's important for those candidates on the stage tonight to address this situation and to address how they will approach this and taking action," she said.

Gabbard has returned to Fox News more than a few times this go-around, joining Carlson and fellow talk show host Sean Hannityto discuss her foreign policy views, the criteria for qualifying for this years Democratic debates and former Secretary of State Hillary Clintons suggestion that Gabbard is a "Russian asset."

Read the original here:
Tulsi Gabbard's Fox News presence in the Obama years - PolitiFact

President Trump suggested that Barack Obama knew of the allegedly illegal conduct committed in order to obtain a warrant to spy on onetime Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

A former low-level attorney with the FBI is being accused of altering a document that led to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court granting permission to spy on Page. Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz uncovered the document during his investigation into alleged FISA abuse and passed along the information to U.S. Attorney John Durham, who is pursuing a criminal investigation into the origin of the Russia investigation.

Trump was asked about the attorney who's under investigation during a Friday morning interview on Fox & Friends. He suggested Durham's report will be "historic," leading anchor Steve Doocy to ask if he believes "it could actually go up into the West Wing of the Obama administration?"

"What youre dealing at the highest levels of government," Trump answered. "They were spying on my campaign. This is my opinion. I said it a long time ago. Remember when I put out a tweet? And I talked about the wiretapping, in quotes, meaning modern-day version whatever wiretapping may be. And all hell broke loose."

The president then added, "I think, personally, it went all the way."

"For [John] Brennan, and for [James] Clapper, and for all of these losers that you had over there, I think it is impossible for them to be doing things, and lets see what it all says," he went on. "But its impossible Susan Rice, the person that worked at the United Nations, who went after FISA reports and went after reports like she ate them for lunch. Look at the previous administration; they went after like a few. She was getting them at levels nobody even imagined before. It had nothing to do with her. No, I think this goes to the highest level. I hate to say it. I think its a disgrace."

The change the lawyer who forged the document made was substantive enough to change its meaning. That individual was interviewed by Horowitz. No charges appear to have been filed in court at this time.

The rest is here:
Trump believes Obama knew of forged document related to Carter Page surveillance - Washington Examiner